Unwind

Summary

In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them.

Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

In Unwind, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life -- not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.

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Unwind - Neal Shusterman

Dedicated to the memory of Barbara Seranella

If more people had been organ donors Unwinding never would have happened.

—THE ADMIRAL

Acknowledgments

When it comes to a novel, the sum of the parts are sometimes greater than the whole. This book could not have been possible without my editor, David Gale, who challenged me to make this book the best it could be. In fact, I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone at Simon & Schuster, not just for their support of this book, but for being so supportive of all my work.

Thanks to my kids, Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin, for being the kind of wonderful kids no one would ever unwind—and a special thanks to Jarrod, who not only created my MySpace page, but pre-read Unwind and gave me a set of brilliant editorial notes that substantially helped me with early drafts even before the manuscript went to the publisher.

Thanks to Haidy Fisher and her son, Cyrus, who came up with the name CyFi, and let me borrow it for one of my favorite characters.

To my writing group, the Fictionaires, for their constant insight, as well as Trumanell Maples and Leigh Ann Jones, media specialists extraordinaire, who helped immensely as I was working through my second draft.

To Steve Layne, who, when I told him this idea, sat me down and said You MUST write this book.

Thanks to my assistant, Brandi Lomeli, for being my brain.

I’d like to thank Justin Sewell of despair.com (one of the funniest websites I’ve ever seen) for allowing me to reference their demotivational poster on Ambition.

I’d also like to thank Charles Pamment of the BBC, Jim Bremner and Joe Zentner of desertusa.com, and Dave Finn, for their help with the factual info between sections. The soul for sale on eBay, and the response is real. The airplane graveyard exists—and the chilling story of the Ukrainian babies taken for their parts is true, proving that fiction is all too often one rationalization away from reality.

The Bill of Life

The Second Civil War, also known as The Heartland War, was a long and bloody conflict fought over a single issue.

To end the war, a set of constitutional amendments known as The Bill of Life was passed.

It satisfied both the Pro-life and the Pro-choice armies.

The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen.

However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, a parent may choose to retroactively abort a child . . .

. . . on the condition that the child’s life doesn’t technically end.

The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called unwinding.

Unwinding is now a common, and accepted practice in society.

Part One

Triplicate

I was never going to amount to much anyway, but now, statistically speaking, there’s a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.

—SAMSON WARD

1 • Connor

There are places you can go, Ariana tells him, and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving to eighteen.

Connor isn’t so sure, but looking into Ariana’s eyes makes his doubts go away, if only for a moment. Her eyes are sweet violet with streaks of gray. She’s such a slave to fashion—always getting the newest pigment injection the second it’s in style. Connor was never into that. He’s always kept his eyes the color they came in. Brown. He never even got tattoos, like so many kids get these days when they’re little. The only color on his skin is the tan it takes during the summer, but now, in November, that tan has long faded. He tries not to think about the fact that he’ll never see the summer again. At least not as Connor Lassiter. He still can’t believe that his life is being stolen from him at sixteen.

Ariana’s violet eyes begin to shine as they fill with tears that flow down her cheeks when she blinks. Connor, I’m so sorry. She holds him, and for a moment it seems as if everything is okay, as if they are the only two people on Earth. For that instant, Connor feels invincible, untouchable . . . but she lets go, the moment passes, and the world around him returns. Once more he can feel the rumble of the freeway beneath them, as cars pass by, not knowing or caring that he’s here. Once more he is just a marked kid, a week short of unwinding.

The soft, hopeful things Ariana tells him don’t help now. He can barely hear her over the rush of traffic. This place where they hide from the world is one of those dangerous places that make adults shake their heads, grateful that their own kids aren’t stupid enough to hang out on the ledge of a freeway overpass. For Connor it’s not about stupidity, or even rebellion—it’s about feeling life. Sitting on this ledge, hidden behind an exit sign is where he feels most comfortable. Sure, one false step and he’s roadkill. Yet for Connor, life on the edge is home.

There have been no other girls he’s brought here, although he hasn’t told Ariana that. He closes his eyes, feeling the vibration of the traffic as if it’s pulsing through his veins, a part of him. This has always been a good place to get away from fights with his parents, or when he just feels generally boiled. But now Connor’s beyond boiled—even beyond fighting with his mom and dad. There’s nothing more to fight about. His parents signed the order—it’s a done deal.

We should run away, Ariana says. I’m fed up with everything, too. My family, school, everything. I could kick-AWOL, and never look back.

Connor hangs on the thought. The idea of kicking-AWOL by himself terrifies him. He might put up a tough front, he might act like the bad boy at school—but running away on his own? He doesn’t even know if he has the guts. But if Ariana comes, that’s different. That’s not alone. Do you mean it?

Ariana looks at him with her magical eyes. Sure. Sure I do. I could leave here. If you asked me.

Connor knows this is major. Running away with an Unwind—that’s commitment. The fact that she would do it moves him beyond words. He kisses her, and in spite of everything going on in his life Connor suddenly feels like the luckiest guy in the world. He holds her—maybe a little too tightly, because she starts to squirm. It just makes him want to hold her even more tightly, but he fights that urge and lets go. She smiles at him.

AWOL . . . she says. What does that mean, anyway?

It’s an old military term or something, Connor says. It means ‘absent without leave.’

Ariana thinks about it, and grins. Hmm. More like ‘alive without lectures.’

Connor takes her hand, trying hard not to squeeze it too tightly. She said she’d go if he asked her. Only now does he realize he hasn’t actually asked yet.

Will you come with me, Ariana?

Ariana smiles and nods. Sure, she says. Sure I will.

* * *

Ariana’s parents don’t like Connor. We always knew he’d be an Unwind, he can just hear them saying. You should have stayed away from that Lassiter boy. He was never Connor to them. He was always that Lassiter boy. They think that just because he’s been in and out of disciplinary school they have a right to judge him.

Still, when he walks her home that afternoon, he stops short of her door, hiding behind a tree as she goes inside. Before he heads home, he thinks how hiding is now going to be a way of life for both of them.

* * *

Home.

Connor wonders how he can call the place he lives home, when he’s about to be evicted—not just from the place he sleeps, but from the hearts of those who are supposed to love him.

His father sits in a chair, watching the news as Connor enters.

Hi, Dad.

His father points at some random carnage on the news. Clappers again.

What did they hit this time?

They blew up an Old Navy in the North Akron mall.

Hmm, says Connor. You’d think they’d have better taste.

I don’t find that funny.

Connor’s parents don’t know that Connor knows he’s being unwound. He wasn’t supposed to find out, but Connor has always been good at ferreting out secrets. Three weeks ago, while looking for a stapler in his dad’s home office, he found airplane tickets to the Bahamas. They were going on a family vacation over Thanksgiving. One problem, though: There were only three tickets. His mother, his father, his younger brother. No ticket for him. At first he just figured the ticket was somewhere else, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed wrong. So Connor went looking a little deeper when his parents were out, and he found it. The Unwind order. It had been signed in old-fashioned triplicate. The white copy was already gone—off with the authorities. The yellow copy would accompany Connor to his end, and the pink would stay with his parents, as evidence of what they’d done. Perhaps they would frame it and hang it alongside his first-grade picture.

The date on the order was the day before the Bahamas trip. He was going off to be unwound, and they were going on vacation to make themselves feel better about it. The unfairness of it had made Connor want to break something. It had made him want to break a lot of things—but he hadn’t. For once he had held his temper, and aside from a few fights in school that weren’t his fault, he kept his emotions hidden. He kept what he knew to himself. Everyone knew that an unwind order was irreversible, so screaming and fighting wouldn’t change a thing. Besides, he found a certain power in knowing his parents’ secret. Now the blows he could deal them were so much more effective. Like the day he brought flowers home for his mother and she cried for hours. Like the B-plus he brought home on a science test. Best grade he ever got in science. He handed it to his father, who looked at it, the color draining from his face. See, Dad, my grades are getting better. I could even bring my science grade up to an A by the end of the semester. An hour later his father was sitting in a chair, still clutching the test in his hand, and staring blankly at the wall.

Connor’s motivation was simple: Make them suffer. Let them know for the rest of their lives what a horrible mistake they made.

But there was no sweetness to this revenge, and now, three weeks of rubbing it in their faces has made him feel no better. In spite of himself he’s starting to feel bad for his parents, and he hates that he feels that way.

Did I miss dinner?

His father doesn’t look away from the TV. Your mother left a plate for you.

Connor heads off toward the kitchen, but halfway there he hears:

Connor?

He turns to see his father looking at him. Not just looking, but staring. He’s going to tell me now, Connor thinks. He’s going to tell me they’re unwinding me, and then break down in tears, going on and on about how sorry sorry sorry he is about it all. If he does, Connor just might accept the apology. He might even forgive him, and then tell him that he doesn’t plan to be here when the Juvey-cops come to take him away. But in the end all his father says is, Did you lock the door when you came in?

I’ll do it now.

Connor locks the door, then goes to his room, no longer hungry for whatever it is his mother saved for him.

* * *

At two in the morning Connor dresses in black and fills a backpack with the things that really matter to him. He still has room for three changes of clothes. He finds it amazing, when it comes down to it, how few things are worth taking. Memories, mostly. Reminders of a time before things went so wrong between him and his parents. Between him and the rest of the world.

Connor peeks in on his brother, thinks about waking him to say good-bye, then decides it’s not a good idea. He silently slips out into the night. He can’t take his bike, because he had installed an antitheft tracking device. Connor never considered that he might be the one stealing it. Ariana has bikes for both of them though.

Ariana’s house is a twenty-minute walk, if you take the conventional route. Suburban Ohio neighborhoods never have streets that go in straight lines, so instead he takes the more direct route, through the woods, and makes it there in ten.

The lights in Ariana’s house are off. He expected this. It would have been suspicious if she had stayed awake all night. Better to pretend she’s sleeping, so she won’t alert any suspicion. He keeps his distance from the house. Ariana’s yard and front porch are equipped with motion-sensor lights that come on whenever anything moves into range. They’re meant to scare off wild animals and criminals. Ariana’s parents are convinced that Connor is both.

He pulls out his phone and dials the familiar number. From where he stands in the shadows at the edge of the backyard he can hear it ring in her room upstairs. Connor disconnects quickly and ducks farther back into the shadows, for fear that Ariana’s parents might be looking out from their windows. What is she thinking? Ariana was supposed to leave her phone on vibrate.

He makes a wide arc around the edge of the backyard, wide enough not to set off the lights, and although a light comes on when he steps onto the front porch, only Ariana’s bedroom faces that way. She comes to the door a few moments later, opening it not quite wide enough for her to come out or for him to go in.

Hi, are you ready? asks Connor. Clearly she’s not; she wears a robe over satin pajamas. You didn’t forget, did you?

No, no, I didn’t forget. . . .

So hurry up! The sooner we get out of here, the more of a lead we’ll get before anyone knows we’re gone.

Connor, she says, here’s the thing . . .

And the truth is right there in her voice, in the way it’s such a strain for her to even say his name, the quiver of apology lingering in the air like an echo. She doesn’t have to say anything after that, because he knows, but he lets her say it anyway. Because he sees how hard it is for her, and he wants it to be. He wants it to be the hardest thing she’s ever done in her life.

Connor, I really want to go, I do . . . but it’s just a really bad time for me. My sister’s getting married, and you know she picked me to be the maid of honor. And then there’s school.

You hate school. You said you’d be dropping out when you turn sixteen.

"Testing out, she says. There’s a difference."

So you’re not coming?

"I want to, I really, really want to . . . but I can’t."

So everything we talked about was just a lie.

No, says Ariana. It was a dream. Reality got in the way, that’s all. And running away doesn’t solve anything.

Running away is the only way to save my life, Connor hisses. I’m about to be unwound, in case you forgot.

She gently touches his face. I know, she says. But I’m not.

Then a light comes on at the top of the stairs, and reflexively Ariana closes the door a few inches.

Ari? Connor hears her mother say. What is it? What are you doing at the door?

Connor backs up out of view, and Ariana turns to look up the stairs. Nothing, Mom. I thought I saw a coyote from my window and I just wanted to make sure the cats weren’t out.

The cats are upstairs, honey. Close the door and go back to bed.

So, I’m a coyote, says Connor.

Shush, says Ariana, closing the door until there’s just a tiny slit and all he can see is the edge of her face and a single violet eye. You’ll get away, I know you will. Call me once you’re somewhere safe. Then she closes the door.

Connor stands there for the longest time, until the motion sensor light goes out. Being alone had not been part of his plan, but he realizes it should have been. From the moment his parents signed those papers, Connor was alone.

* * *

He can’t take a train; he can’t take a bus. Sure, he has enough money, but nothing’s leaving until morning, and by then they’ll be looking for him in all the obvious places. Unwinds on the run are so common these days, they have whole teams of Juvey-cops dedicated to finding them. The police have it down to an art.

He knows he’d be able to disappear in a city, because there are so many faces, you never see the same one twice. He knows he can also disappear in the country, where people are so few and far between; he could set up house in an old barn and no one would think to look. But then, Connor figures the police probably thought of that. They probably have every old barn set up to spring like a rat trap, snaring kids like him. Or maybe he’s just being paranoid. No, Connor knows his situation calls for justified caution—not just tonight, but for the next two years. Then once he turns eighteen, he’s home free. After that, sure, they can throw him in jail, they can put him on trial—but they can’t unwind him. Surviving that long is the trick.

Down by the interstate there’s a rest stop where truckers pull off the road for the night. This is where Connor goes. He figures he can slip in the back of an eighteen-wheeler, but he quickly learns that truckers keep their cargo locked. He curses himself for not having forethought enough to consider that. Thinking ahead has never been one of Connor’s strong points. If it was, he might not have gotten into the various situations that have plagued him over these past few years. Situations that got him labels like troubled and at risk, and finally this last label, unwind.

There are about twenty parked trucks, and a brightly lit diner where half a dozen truckers eat. It’s 3:30 in the morning. Apparently truckers have their own biological clocks. Connor watches and waits. Then, at about a quarter to four, a police cruiser pulls silently into the truck stop. No lights, no siren. It slowly circles the lot like a shark. Connor thinks he can hide, until he sees a second police car pulling in. There are too many lights over the lot for Connor to hide in shadows, and he can’t bolt without being seen in the bright moonlight. A patrol car comes around the far end of the lot. In a second its headlights will be on him, so he rolls beneath a truck and prays the cops haven’t seen him.

He watches as the patrol car’s wheels slowly roll past. On the other side of the eighteen-wheeler the second patrol car passes in the opposite direction. Maybe this is just a routine check, he thinks. Maybe they’re not looking for me. The more he thinks about it, the more he convinces himself that’s the case. They can’t know he’s gone yet. His father sleeps like a log, and his mother never checks on Connor during the night anymore.

Still, the police cars circle.

From his spot beneath the truck Connor sees the driver’s door of another eighteen-wheeler open. No—it’s not the driver’s door, it’s the door to the little bedroom behind the cab. A trucker emerges, stretches, and heads toward the truckstop bathrooms, leaving the door ajar.

In the hairbreadth of a moment, Connor makes a decision and bolts from his hiding spot, racing across the lot to that truck. Loose gravel skids out from under his feet as he runs. He doesn’t know where the cop cars are anymore, but it doesn’t matter. He has committed himself to this course of action and he has to see it through. As he nears the door he sees headlights arcing around, about to turn toward him. He pulls open the door to the truck’s sleeper, hurls himself inside, and pulls the door closed behind him.

He sits on a bed not much bigger than a cot, catching his breath. What’s his next move? The trucker will be back. Connor has about five minutes if he’s lucky, one minute if he’s not. He peers beneath the bed. There’s space down there where he can hide, but it’s blocked by two duffle bags full of clothes. He could pull them out, squeeze in, and pull the duffle bags back in front of him. The trucker would never know he’s there. But even before he can get the first duffle bag out, the door swings open. Connor just stands there, unable to react as the trucker reaches in to grab his jacket and sees him.

Whoa! Who are you? What the hell you doin’ in my truck?

A police car cruises slowly past behind him.

Please, Connor says, his voice suddenly squeaky like it was before his voice changed. Please, don’t tell anyone. I’ve got to get out of this place. He reaches into his backpack, fumbling, and pulls out a wad of bills from his wallet. You want money? I’ve got money. I’ll give you all I’ve got.

I don’t want your money, the trucker says.

All right, then, what?

Even in the dim light the trucker must see the panic in Connor’s eyes, but he doesn’t say a thing.

Please, says Connor again. I’ll do anything you want. . . .

The trucker looks at him in silence for a moment more. Is that so? he finally says. Then he steps inside and closes the door behind him.

Connor shuts his eyes, not daring to consider what he’s just gotten himself into.

The trucker sits beside him. What’s your name?

Connor. Then he realizes a moment too late he should have given a fake name.

The trucker scratches his beard stubble and thinks for a moment. Let me show you something, Connor. He reaches over Connor and grabs, of all things, a deck of cards from a little pouch hanging next to the bed. Did ya ever see this? The trucker takes the deck of cards in one hand and does a skillful one-handed shuffle. Pretty good, huh?

Connor, not knowing what to say, just nods.

How about this? Then the trucker takes a single card and with sleight of hand makes the card vanish into thin air. Then he reaches over and pulls the card right out of Connor’s shirt pocket. You like that?

Connor lets out a nervous laugh.

Well, those tricks you just saw? The trucker says, I didn’t do ’em.

I . . . don’t know what you mean.

The trucker rolls up his sleeve to reveal that the arm, which had done the tricks, had been grafted on at the elbow.

Ten years ago I fell asleep at the wheel, the trucker tells him. Big accident. I lost an arm, a kidney, and a few other things. I got new ones, though, and I pulled through. He looks at his hands, and now Connor can see that the trick-card hand is a little different from the other one. The trucker’s other hand has thicker fingers, and the skin is a bit more olive in tone.

So, says Connor, you got dealt a new hand.

The trucker laughs at that, then he becomes quiet for a moment, looking at his replacement hand. These fingers here knew things the rest of me didn’t. Muscle memory, they call it. And there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wonder what other incredible things that kid who owned this arm knew, before he was unwound . . . whoever he was.

The trucker stands up. You’re lucky you came to me, he says. There are truckers out there who’ll take whatever you offer, then turn you in anyway.

And you’re not like that?

No, I’m not. He puts out his hand—his other hand—and Connor shakes it. Josias Aldridge, he says. I’m heading north from here. You can ride with me till morning.

Connor’s relief is so great, it takes the wind right out of him. He can’t even offer a thank-you.

That bed there’s not the most comfortable in the world, says Aldridge, but it does the job. Get yourself some rest. I just gotta go take a dump, and then we’ll be on our way. Then he closes the door, and Connor listens to his footsteps heading off toward the bathroom. Connor finally lets his guard down and begins to feel his own exhaustion. The trucker didn’t give him a destination, just a direction, and that’s fine. North, south, east, west—it doesn’t matter as long as it’s away from here. As for his next move, well, first he’s got to get through this one before he can think about what comes next.

A minute later Connor’s already beginning to doze when he hears the shout from outside.

We know you’re in there! Come out now and you won’t get hurt!

Connor’s heart sinks. Josias Aldridge has apparently pulled another sleight of hand. He’s made Connor appear for the police. Abracadabra. With his journey over before it even began, Connor swings the door open to see three Juvey-cops aiming weapons.

But they’re not aiming at him.

In fact, their backs are to him.

Across the way, the cab door swings open of the truck he had hidden under just a few minutes before, and a kid comes out from behind the empty driver’s seat, his hands in the air. Connor recognizes him right away. It’s a kid he knows from school. Andy Jameson.

My God, is Andy being unwound too?

There’s a look of fear on Andy’s face, but beyond it is something worse. A look of utter defeat. That’s when Connor realizes his own folly. He’d been so surprised by this turn of events that he’s still just standing there, exposed for anyone to see. Well, the policemen don’t see him. But Andy does. He catches sight of Connor, holds his gaze, only for a moment . . .

. . . and in that moment something remarkable happens.

The look of despair on Andy’s face is suddenly replaced by a steely resolve bordering on triumph. He quickly looks away from Connor and takes a few steps before the police grab him—steps away from Connor, so that the police still have their backs to him.

Andy had seen him and had not given him away! If Andy has nothing else after this day, at least he’ll have this small victory.

Connor leans back into the shadows of the truck and slowly pulls the door closed. Outside, as the police take Andy away, Connor lies back down, and his tears come as sudden as a summer downpour. He’s not sure who he’s crying for—for Andy, for himself, for Ariana—and not knowing makes his tears flow all the more. Instead of wiping the tears away he lets them dry on his face like he used to when he was a little boy and the things he cried about were so insignificant that they’d be forgotten by morning.

The trucker never comes to check on him. Instead Connor hears the engine start and feels the truck pulling out. The gentle motion of the road rocks him to sleep.

* * *

The ring of Connor’s cell phone wakes him out of a deep sleep. He fights consciousness. He wants to go back to the dream he was having. It was about a place he was sure he had been to, although he couldn’t quite remember when. He was at a cabin on a beach with his parents, before his brother was born. Connor’s leg had fallen through a rotted board on the porch into spiderwebs so thick, they felt like cotton. Connor had screamed and screamed from the pain, and the fear of the giant spiders that he was convinced would eat his leg off. And yet, this was a good dream—a good memory—because his father was there to pull him free, and carry him inside, where they bandaged his leg and sat him by the fire with some kind of cider so flavorful, he could still taste it when he thought about it. His father told him a story that he can no longer remember, but that’s all right. It wasn’t the story but the tone of his voice that mattered, a gentle baritone rumble as calming as waves breaking on a shore. Little-boy-Connor drank his cider and leaned back against his mother pretending to fall asleep, but what he was really doing was trying to dissolve into the moment and make it last forever. In the dream he did dissolve. His whole being flowed into the cider cup, and his parents placed it gently on the table, close enough to the fire to keep it warm forever and always.

Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad, because they remind you how poorly reality measures up.

His cell phone rings again, chasing away the last of the dream. Connor almost answers it. The sleeper room of the truck is so dark, he doesn’t realize at first that he’s not in his own bed. The only thing that saves him is that he can’t find his phone and he must turn on a light. When he finds a wall where his nightstand should be, he realizes that this isn’t his room. The phone rings again. That’s when it all comes back to him, and he remembers

In the not-so-distant future where abortion is outlawed, parents can choose to have their children unwound between the ages of 13 and 17. Being unwound means every part of your body is harvested and distributed amongst those in need. It's not death, according to the government, because you remain alive through all those who receive your body parts, it's merely living in a divided state. Connor, a troublesome boy of 16, Risa, also 16 and a ward of the state who doesn't live up to their unreasonable standards, and Lev, a 13 year old tithe (a tithe being 1/10th and chosen from birth to be unwound) are thrown together as they battle to preserve their lives and fight against this morally corrupt system.The premise of Unwound is not for the faint of heart. Each character is heartbreaking in their own way, including those who favor unwinding. Shusterman is not afraid to take chances, dropping favorite characters in difficult situations with no way out, his writing is crisp, the action very realistic, and the result is a very satisfying, if somewhat disturbing, young adult novel. Children over the age of 14 should read this book with a trusted adult who is willing to discuss the themes.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book as I've had quite a few lackluster reads lately, especially from my local library. But this one, I am happy to say, was quite awesome. The pace is perfect. We're always moving, never still, and find out something new each page. In that way the novel reminded me of The Knife of Never Letting Go, a similar feeling of being in constant motion. We have three lead characters in Connor, Lev and Risa, as well as delving into the head of a handful of people through the novel. It's very clever in what it reveals and when. I had all these assumptions for what the characters would wind up doing and becoming, and I was wrong about all of them. I like all the lead characters, especially Risa who is a strong, independent female character who relies on only herself. She develops a bond with Connor, but she never changes who she is and they thankfully never have a cringe worthy "I am SO in love with you and would literally DIE without you!" moment. The narrative approaches quite dark subjects with an almost cavalier attitude that make them that much darker. For example, when Roland is being unwound and we literally are with him as piece by piece of his body is removed. It's so clinical but so effective. There were some unanswered questions, but as this is first in a series, I figured there would be. I will definitely be looking into book 2 :) Definitely recommended to fans of Dystopia! :)

Great characters with an original plot that breaks new ground. The dialog is easy to sink your teeth into and really nestle into the characters' motivations. Some of the actions required a small leap of faith but not distracting enough to discourage me from staying invested 100%. The chapter of surgical unwinding is probably the best YA chapter I've ever read. If anything, read the book for that. Well done, Neal.

Connor isn't quite a bad boy, but he'll be the first to admit that he acts before he thinks, which gets him into fights and other trouble pretty frequently. Still, it's a shock to him when he finds the signed paperwork for his unwinding. His parents have made the decision to have him unwound, to have every part of his body transplanted into new recipients. He's not going to die, just live on in a separated state. Unwinding is, after all, the compromise that was reached between the pro-lifers and the pro-choicers in the second Civil War. Still, Connor doesn't plan to let it happen to him, and makes a daring escape at the first opportunity. He ends up taking two other Unwinds with him: Risa, scheduled for unwinding due to budget cuts in the state home she was living in, and Lev, a tithe of his religious parents. They'll need to evade capture until their 18th birthdays if they're going to really survive, but that won't be easy--especially when Lev's determination to tithe himself puts them all in jeopardy.

Dystopian in the sense of --holy crap, what has the government agreed to? Unwinding was proposed as a joke, intended to scare both sides of the Reproductive Rights war into cooperating, but the bluff was called and now it's a horrible reality. There are Harvest Camps all around the country, ready to unwind teenagers in a sort of retroactive abortion. I suppose it really is more sci-fi than dystopian, but I can make a case for dystopia based on the societal and religious value of lives and the government's solution to the abortion debate.

Short chapters and varied viewpoints keep the pace moving briskly. Light romance doesn't overshadow the plot and the characters are mostly well-developed. It wouldn't hurt to have had another girl somewhere in here, or to better develop the one who is there, but she wasn't such a sideline character as to be annoying. I just wished more had been done with her. Great for 8th grade and up, particularly boys.

This book has a pretty controversial plot line, but I thougt it was excellent. It's about a society where the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life groups come to an agreement. Abortion of infants is no longer legal, however, when a child reaches the age of 13, if the parents so choose, the child will be unwound. Unwound, meaning they are taken apart piece by piece and harvested for other uses. If the child can reach the age of 18, by law, they can't be unwound. The book follows three unwinds on a journey to escape being unwound, and ultimately find a purpose for their lives that their parents so willingly gave away.

book was recommended for young adults, but everyone i know who has read it is an adult. we all seemed to enjoy it, except my mom who doesn't really care for sci-fi type books. it is a chilling exploration into what we as humans are capable of, especially when compassion becomes a duty and children a commodity. Short and sweet, i would rank this with (but not on the same level as) Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, in that it describes a world of deprivatization and what happens when you let go of those things that make you human in order to gain comfort as a society.

Where do I begin? This book has so much to think about. What a concept... having your child unwound and their parts distributed to others so they have a "second" life. This book has so many layers and definitely left me thinking long after I read it. The characters are very well developed and the plot never lets you go. As a future teen librarian this will be on my list of books to read before graduation as it presents so many topics to mull over. The final chapters and the scene where a character is unwound gave me goosebumps. It is described in such a way that it was horrific and disturbing but still readable. This book deals with Pro life vs. Pro Choice in a manner that is not overly preachy on either side and really makes the reader think about your own beliefs. Well done!

Connor, Risa and Lev are three teens who are going to be 'unwinds' a form of total-body harvesting, but who are trying desperately to escape their fate. I enjoyed reading this book as it talked about the different moral issues but I felt like it never really answered any questions or even proposed any enlightening thoughts on the subject, slightly disappointing. That said, I loved the characters, their growth and development and the overall story. Good for teen boys and girls.

(Initial reaction after I finished: AWESOME.)First off, I love the cover. Perfectly conveys just how creepy and intense it is.Second, I really, really enjoyed this. At first the prospect of the story seemed bizarre, but frankly, that's what made it so great! A story unique and of itself; you'll be flipping pages till your eyes fall out.The book focuses around 3 main characters: Connor, Lev, and Risa - strangers until fate dealt a hand that brought them together. And what characters they are!Connor is the troublemaker. A boy with a hot temper and a tough exterior, but just too much trouble for his parents to deal with. He comes across the papers that sealed the deal for his "Unwinding" and takes matters into his own hands.Risa is a ward of the state; especially gifted in classical piano. But no practical use for the greater good so she's scheduled to be Unwound due to "budget cuts." (How fair is that?!)Lev is what they call a tithe. He's been deemed a sacrificial offering to God since his birth. Told for 13 years that his purpose in life as a tithe is considered a blessing and to be looked upon with pride.Neal Shusterman wrote them in a way that made them each believable and real. But that's not to take away from the great secondary characters. It's an exciting ride from start to finish; giving you chills down your spine in all the right places. If you're looking for a book that is captivating, unpredictable, and intense, then this is the book for you.On a side not, this book explored the many avenues of future technology and what it could become. To me, it's almost unnerving to even consider the fact that technology so advanced could become a reality in the near future. This book brings many questions to life and leaves you with much food for thought. Definitely some eerie prospects that I will be pondering over the next couple days, I'm sure.Philosophical thoughts aside, there is so much more I could say about this book, but I just can't find the words to say it. (Plus, most of it would involve spoilers and I certainly don't want to spoil anything!) My advice? Just read it!

This book is about a world where abortions are illegal, but when your child turns 16 you can choose to have them "unwound", which means they are harvested for organs. This book deals with issues of abortion, without actually dealing with the issue. It's a futuristic novel that is a very easy read, and would engage a high school classroom.

The sci-fi Unwind by Neal Shusterman is definitely more suited for the high school students’ bookshelves. Set sometime the future, the three protagonists face certain death, as they are about to be “unwound”. The three teens’ parents/guardians have chosen to have their children’s body parts harvested so they can live forever. Each teen is being unwound for a different reason: bad behavior, a ward of the state, and as a sacrificial tithe. The characters are from different walks of life, but not so different that readers cannot identify with them. Teens will quickly be sucked in to this story, imagining what they would do to try and escape this fate. It will also cause them to look at the pro-choice/pro-life topic in a new way. This book is what Nilsen calls the “threat of science gone sour or insane”.

Connor discovers his parents have signed the unwind order and runs away. He is not the smartest and takes his phone with him which the juvies track and find him. Connor manages to get away and causes a huge car accident, freeing risa an orphan on her way to get unwound, kidnaping lev a tithe, tranqing a juvie cop with his own tranq gun and becoming known as the Akron AWOL in the process. Connor Risa and Lev hide in a high school bathroom until Lev leaves and turns Risa and connor in. As the school is being evacuated by the juvies a teacher recognizes them and takes them to Sonna who hides AWOLs in the basement of her antique shop until they are picked up and taken to the graveyard. The graveyard is a old Air force base filled with retired planes that hides AWOLs until they turn 18. When the man in charge has a heart attack connor risa and roland( another AWOL they meet in Sonna’s basement) take him to a hospital and one of the nurses recognises them and turns them in. The juvies inform them that they knew about the graveyard the whole time and send them to a harvest camp. At the harvest camp there is a clapper attack by 3 clappers except one clapper didn’t clap and that clapper was lev. The attack happens after roland has been unwound, while Risa was on the roof playing piano and just as connor entered the chop shop to be unwound. The attack causes risa’s spine to be severed and connor to lose one of his arms and one of his eyes. They give him an eye and an arm from unwinds and the arm turns out to be rolands.I really enjoyed this book. I like how Neal Shusterman has every chapter told from a different person's perspective. I would recommend this book to all of my friends. The only reason i didn't give it 5 stars is because i think its sad that parents unwind their kids because they don't want them anymore.

There were parts of this that didn't quite gel with me, but knowing folks who support those who blow up abortion clinics, I found some of the thinking that led to the decision that teens up to 18 could be unwound or harvested for parts, scarily plausable. The Tithes were even more believable and their attitude to the process reminded me of suicide bombers.Several reviewers have commented about a chapter that is nightmare fodder and I really have to agree, it's a short, snappy chapter and reads so smoothly that you find yourself drifting along with it until your brain reminds you what you're reading about. You'll know it when you get there, the copy I read opened at it.It was interesting to see how Conor, Risa and Lev develop along the story and how what happens to them changes them leaving you with the question of how many of the unwound could have been changed if people wanted to change them.Scary, plausable on certain levels, choppy in bits but worth reading. Definitely not a bedtime read.

This book grabbed me and kept me going. There were a number of twists and turns that caught me off guard. Set in future America after the Heartland War, where a peace treaty was signed after both sides agree to the idea of unwinding - taking 13 to 18 year olds and harvesting all their body parts. Connor finding out he is about to be unwound goes on the the run. Along the way he meets Risa, a ward of the state, and Lev, a child born to be tithed, and the three of them try to stay alive. There is lots to think about in this book and plentiful action. Wow! I liked this book!

Set in the aftermath of a future civil war which was fought over abortion. Both sides reach a compromise allowing parents to sign a retroactive abortion order for children aged between 13 and 18 years old to be unwound (taken to 'harvest camps' where their body parts harvested). The logic being that as 100% (actually 99.44% taking into account the appendix and 'useless' organs) is required to be reused, unwinds are not technically 'dead' but instead 'in a divided state' as their individual body parts live on in others. Parents unable to raise their children are able to 'stork' their child by leaving it on another family's porch. If not caught the 'storked' baby becomes the other family's responsibility. This is the story of three youths scheduled to be unwound: 16-year-old Connor whose family believes he'd gotten into too many fights; state ward Risa, the victim of budget cuts, and tenth child Lev whose rich parents had him specifically to be unwound as a tithe.This novel is chilling and calls to mind the Nazi Concentration Camps of World War II. Particularly disturbing is the detailed harvesting of Roland (which is haunting me!) - harvesting has become socially acceptable and commonplace and its almost too easy to get rid of troublesome or unwanted teens. Shusterman raises huge issues. Suitable for older teens.

There is little to say about this book that hasn't already been said in previous comments. The premise of the story, the threat of being unwound, is something that drives the book forward with every page. Shusterman writes very real characters. None of them are perfect, but all grow by the end, and find something in themselves that should make the reader think about other people in a different light. The book also brings up moral and religious questions that many people struggle with. I can't say that these questions are straight out answered, but they show things in a light that others may not have experienced before. As an adult reading this book, I was deeply moved by the end, something that I don't often experience, even with adult books. I hope that when people consider reading Unwind, they will look past the potential unpleasantness of the theme and focus on the wonderful writing and deeper themes instead.

Seriously thought provoking series and something you could easily imagine in the future. I even discussed this with my husband who only reads in the bathroom. Ha! Reaches across all age groups and makes for some good debates.

Unwind was very suspenseful and is well done Dystopian fiction. I loved the not so subtle pro-life vs pro-choice debate going on throughout the entire book. Then when the reader is present for an actual unwinding it really forces you to take an even harder look at things. It was a very horrific scene and I'm glad that Shusterman went there even though this is a YA book. It gave me chills. My only complaint is that I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters. That could just be me though.

What a thought provoking book this is. Sometime in the future the abortion debate turns into a war, and the final solution is a compromise: no one may abort a fetus, but between the ages of 13 and 18 a child may be "unwound", or harvested for his or her parts. Society has managed to convince itself that this means the unwinds are not killed, but live on in a separated state. All parts of the person are sold to people who either need or just want a better heart, lung, skin, hair, etc. Children become unwound generally because they are troublemakers or wards of the state, but some are born to be tithes, or Biblical gifts to God, and considered to be special. Connor, whose parents decided to have him unwound because he's too much trouble, manages to escape along with Risa, a ward of the state, and they grab Lev, a tithe who is looking forward to his unwinding. Throughout their journey they change their attitudes about themselves and learn to become leaders among Unwinds. Really well thought out concept that may make teens explore more fully their thoughts about abortion or other controversial issues.

Connor, Risa, and Levi are teenagers in a not-too-distant future in which parents can decide to retroactively abort their children between the ages of thirteen and eighteen through a process called unwinding. Unwinding, a compromise the ended a civil war between pro-life and pro-choice factions, is a process of disassembling a person so that each of their body parts can go to someone else (but it is not considered killing, since the each part of the unwound person goes on living in someone else). In this world, so many teens are unwound that ailments are fixed through transplants rather than medicines or other therapies. Connor, Risa, and Levi have each been scheduled to be unwound for one reason or another, but Connor’s high-profile escape leads to their joining up as runaways. Unwind passes the narration between Connor, Risa, Levi, and a few secondary characters, as indicated by chapter headings. Although it may take some getting used to, this narrative method lets readers into the motives of the characters and the changes they go through in their attempts to escape, survive, and make sense of the world. While it’s hard to imagine anyone--regardless of their position on abortion--who would support unwinding, it makes for a provocative premise without glorifying either side of the abortion issue. Instead, Unwind asks questions: Could our society ever adopt and embrace a practice like unwinding? What is life, when does it start and end, and who decides? When is it okay to break the law? Teens may or may not think they have the answers, but they will certainly ask these kinds of questions and many more of their own.Unwind gives readers a lot to think about while also telling a compelling, exciting, and highly disturbing story. It is appropriate for high school and teen library collections, as the idea of parents electing to have their children dismembered may be too unnerving for many younger readers.

I finished this book in about a days time. I am not a fan of sci-fi books, but this book was overall okay. To be honest, I do not like reading books about kids dieing, especially babies. A strength of the book is that it does a good job of making connections from the begining to the end. In my opinion, a weakness was the fact that throughout the book, the character Roland was protrayed as a bad boy that I felt the author wanted the reader to not like so much that when he was "unwound", the reader was not supposed to feel as bad for the boy. I did not like that part one bit.

What a thought provoking read! Unwind is one of the books that keeps you thinking long after you have finished the final page. The Second Civil War was fought to determine reproductive rights and resulted in a solution that both sides could agree upon. The law states that life is inviable from conception until age 13, however, between the ages for 13 and 18 parents can have their children unwound. Unwind details what can happen when lawmakers are focused not on the people affected by the laws but on the politics and causes associated with them. It also shows how some parents would rather eliminate a problem than work through it. This book was well written and had great pacing. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the other installments in this series.

This is the fascinating story of Connor, Risa, and Lev who are on the run from the government. They live in the future where children are unwound so that people can have their organs. The child is not dead, but one would hardly call it living. The three protagonists meet as they try to escape their horrible fate. This story is exciting and intriguing. The concepts brought up are unique and the book is thought provoking. Highly recommended.